Reception of Great Patriotic War Narratives: A Psychological Approach to Studying Collective Memory in Russia

Do top-down approaches of selective commemoration by governments shape the collective memory of the population? Are the current strategies of the Russian government successful in consolidating memory and identity around a shared understanding of the past, or are heavy-handed efforts resulting in resistance and polarisation? Utilizing a psychological approach to the study of collective memory, this chapter examines how community-specific individual memories may be changing in response to efforts of Russian elites to shape the population’s cultural memory of World War Two. The research programme detailed herein is designed to describe the effects of a central speaker (Vladimir Putin) communicating a strategically selective war narrative to the general population during the 75th anniversary Victory Day celebration. This approach prioritises external validity and examines changes in participant memories by comparing within-subject post-test measurements with each individuals” pre-test baseline, as well as between-subject scores comparing the treatment group with a control group. This approach addresses a key concern of how to empirically measure the effectiveness of a stategic narrative through its diffusion and internalisation in a given population.